MOTORISTS’ COSTS VERSUS GOVERNMENT REVENUE
Maine’s inspection mandate comes at a cost. Motorists lose time and money complying with this regulation. Abolishing the program would save the owners of the roughly 820,000 passenger cars inspected each year approximately $10.3 million annually in upfront expenses.
Lost time is an even greater cost. Assuming each inspection takes approximately one hour, valued at the statewide median wage of $17.41 per hour, inspection mandates impose an additional $14.3 million on Mainers.
The costs of unneeded repairs resulting from an inspection, though difficult to quantify, could also be significant. Overall, taking into account only the upfront costs of the inspection and the value of the time lost complying with the law, mandatory inspections cost Mainers at least $14.6 million.
According to research by WalletHub, Maine has the 6th-highest motor vehicle taxes in the country, at a 2.4% effective rate. One-half of states don’t levy motor vehicle taxes at all. Even New Hampshire—which, in the absence of an income or sales tax, relies on more diverse revenue sources—has lower motor vehicle taxes than Maine. Given the high cost of owning a car in Maine, legislators should focus on reducing onerous fines and unnecessary mandates that raise those costs.
The Maine State Police spends nearly $1 million per year administering the inspection program, which generates about $3.5 million in state revenue. Given the costs imposed on the public, there is no financial justification for keeping it in place. Even a perennial proponent of maintaining Maine’s inspections program, Representative Lester Ordway of Standish, has admitted that ”the state doesn’t make any real money off of [the program].”